Cracow/Krakow

Krakow – the cultural capital of Poland

“Krakow was not built in a day”, claims an old Polish proverb referring to an outstanding feature of this city - its extremely long history. For centuries the capital of Poland, and an important centre on the European panorama, the city has ancient origins.
From the 14th century it was home to ... Read on

Krakow – the cultural capital of Poland

“Krakow was not built in a day”, claims an old Polish proverb referring to an outstanding feature of this city - its extremely long history. For centuries the capital of Poland, and an important centre on the European panorama, the city has ancient origins.
From the 14th century it was home to a prestigious university and is now considered
to be the nation’s cultural capital.

RYNEK GŁÓWNY
The Market Square

The 13th-century layout of Krakow has survived unaltered since the city was founded, to the present day.
Rynek Główny is one of the largest medieval squares in Europe. A slightly irregular quadrangle some 200 metres on each side, the surrounding houses were built in the 14th and 15th centuries.

The classical façades on a large number of the houses were the result of restoration work carried out from the 17th to the 19th centuries but many retain renaissance and baroque stone doorways, together with many other original architectural details such as the beams, porticoed courtyards and sections of the attic storeys. Among the most notable buildings on the square are the Sukiennice (Textile Warehouse), Wieża Ratuszowa (Town Hall Tower), Kościół św. Wojciecha (the Church of St Adalbert), the Zbaraskich Palace (at no. 20), the monument to Adam Mickiewicz, and especially Kościół Mariacki (Church of the Virgin Mary). The present level of the square, paved with stone slabs, is some two metres higher than originally, as we can see from the lower part of the wall on the south side of the Church of the Virgin Mary and also from the sunken level of the Church of St Adalbert.

KOŚCIÓŁ MARIACKI
The Church of the Virgin Mary
The gothic church dedicated to the Assumption of the Virgin Mary, usually referred to as the Church of the Virgin Mary, is the most significant monument in the area of Market Square.
For centuries it was the most important church in the city, frequented by the merchant classes, while the Cathedral on Wawel was officially the main diocesan church. It was built on the site of a romanesque church founded at the beginning of the 13th century by Bishop Iwo Odrowąż; now only its irregular position in relation to the plan of the Square reminds us of the earlier construction.
It is built entirely of hand-made bricks on a basilican plan with a raised central nave and two lower side aisles. The main body of the church was built between 1350 and 1397 when the architect Mikołaj Werner finished the ceiling above the central nave. It took the entire 15th century to complete the structure with the erection of the towers, the addition of the chapels and the completion of the ceilings.


THE WALLS AND BATTLEMENTS
Building of Krakow’s oldest ring of walls began in 1285 on the orders of prince Leszek the Black as protection against the continual attacks of the Tartars who had razed the city in 1241. In the 15th century the entire historic centre of Krakow was surrounded by a moat and a strengthened double wall which had a total of 47 square and round towers and 8 gateways, providing more than adequate defense for the city. Dismantled in the early 19th century to make way for the Planty park and gardens, only one section near to the St Florian’s Gate has survived, representing in fact the earliest part of the structure. The monumental group of buildings at Brama Floriańska includes the battlements, the sections of wall with the Ciesielska (Joiners’ Tower), the Stolarska (Carpenters’ Tower), the Baszta Pasamoników (Haberdashers’ Tower), the Barbican and 16th-century Arsenal.


THE BUILDINGS OF WAWEL
For centuries the skyline of Wawel has been dominated by the ring of ramparts, the bulk of the Royal Castle (Zamek) with its towers, and the Cathedral (Katedra) buildings with the three towers, the chapels and crypts.
A visit to the Dragon’s Den (Smocza Jama) begins at the foot of the Thieves’ Tower. This cavern, some 270 metres long, 81 of which can be visited, represents one of the myths surrounding the origins of Krakow.
The priests of the Cathedral live in the Vicar’s House (Wikarówka). The buildings to the north-west are occupied by the offices and staff of the Wawel Museums.
The old royal kitchens now house the permanent exhibition “Lost Wawel” (Wawel zaginiony) where remains of the old fortifications, remnants from the romanesque period such as the lovely Rotunda from the apse of the Church of the Virgin Mary, and plans of the Castle from the 11th century up to the gothic period are displayed.
The Halls and the Royal Apartments are most impressive and house collections of art, the Crown Treasury and Armoury (Skarbiec Koronny i Zbrojownia) and the collection of Oriental Art (Sztuka Wschodu).
An archaeological site in front of the Royal Castle has revealed the foundations of medieval religious buildings. The Cathedral Museum is housed in one of the chapter houses beside the Vasa Gate and was opened in 1978 by Karol Wojtyła, at the time cardinal of Krakow.

THE COURTYARD OF THE ROYAL CASTLE
The Castle courtyard is one of the finest examples of Italian renaissance architecture in Poland. Built in such a grand style, the Royal Castle on Wawel was intended to reflect the magnificence of Sigismund the Elder and the extent of the power of the Jagiellonian dynasty, which at the beginning of the 16th century extended over Poland, Lithuania, Bohemia and Hungary, covering an area from the Baltic to the Adriatic, from the source of the Elbe to the Dneiper.
The portico and the first two orders of arcading surrounding the courtyard form covered walks which on the ground and first floors are protected by renaissance arches, while on the top storey protection from the damp climate is provided by a steeply sloping roof with gutters, supported by slender columns. Fragments of 16th-century frescoes are still visible on the walls.



THE TWELVE APOSTLES
The small square in front of the Church of Sts Peter and Paul is enclosed by elegant wrought-iron railings including twelve tall pedestals supporting baroque statues in white stone of the twelve Apostles. They are the work of Daniel (or perhaps of David) Hell and of Ferdinand Kilcz. The soft stone from which they are sculpted has suffered considerably over the years from erosion and the statues now in the square are copies of the originals made by Kazimierz Jęczmyk and Ryszard Ochęduszko.

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